Unusual type-naming for limited access routes/freeways

[Mr_Northside]

Part of the PA 28 freeway is known as East Ohio Street.

I don't know if the "current" freeway portion (From Millvale on north) is referred to as East Ohio St.  In 4 years, when all the construction is done and the last (or first) 2 miles is "freeway", I can certainly see people continuing to refer to the stretch as East Ohio St.

Oftentimes on traffic reports, I'll hear the one stretch of 28 referred to as the "Etna Bypass".

[TheStranger]

In many of these cases, an old road upgraded to a freeway retained its old name.

I don't think the road along Loop 1 in Austin ever existed as a surface street though.  I'm not sure if it was originally signed as "MoPac Expressway" (which is the name listed on Google Maps) or if it was always MoPac Boulevard.

[PAHighways]

I don't know if the "current" freeway portion (From Millvale on north) is referred to as East Ohio St.  In 4 years, when all the construction is done and the last (or first) 2 miles is "freeway", I can certainly see people continuing to refer to the stretch as East Ohio St.

Oftentimes on traffic reports, I'll hear the one stretch of 28 referred to as the "Etna Bypass".

According to PennDOT, it is East Ohio Street until Exit 4/Butler Street, then from there until Exit 5/PA 8 North it is the Etna Bypass.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I'm fairly sure I-564 is still Admiral Taussig Boulevard.

[deathtopumpkins]

All that's still signed as Admiral Taussig Blvd. is the frontage road along the I-64 interchange eastbound and the at-grade western end. Whether the freeway is officially named this or not, I don't know. Certainly not called it by the locals.

[froggie]

According to both VDOT shapefiles and their traffic log, Taussig Blvd does not exist along I-564.  Just along the east-west part of VA 337, and the southwest-side frontage road between Granby St (US 460) and Little Creek Rd (VA 165), as mentioned by DTP.

[jdb1234]

US 45 in Tupelo is signed as Martin Luther King Jr Drive on some of the overpasses.

[TheStranger]

Forgot to mention O'Henry Boulevard in Greensboro (US 29), which I just spotted on Google Maps...

[froggie]

It'd be a bit of a stretch to call that section of US 29 a freeway.  "Jersey freeway"? Arguably yes, at least until you hit the at-grade intersections north of Cone Blvd.  But full freeway?  Not with several RIROs on either side.

[achilles765]

Outside of Houston on the East side in Baytown is Spur 330 which is known as "Decker Drive" despite being a total freeway from IH 10 to SH 146

[hobsini2]

Froggie, correct me if i am wrong but i believe that I-94 east of Downtown St Paul at one point was called Hudson Rd.

IL 83 Kingery Hwy is a quasi-expressway as it is a limited access expressway between 55th St and I-88.

IL 38 Roosevelt Rd is also expressway between IL 83 and I-294.

[Alps]

And then it hit me, one that I've clinched - Allen Rd. in Toronto.

[Henry]

Can't believe nobody mentioned Independence Blvd. in Charlotte, although that one is debatable, since you still have the at-grade section that begins past the point where US 74 and NC 27 split.

[1995hoo]

Virginia Route 28 is officially Sully Road, although I haven't seen that name posted on any signs, nor used by anyone, in a long time. When I was growing up it was a two-lane road. Almost the whole of the portion north of I-66 (with a small exception at the southern end) has since been upgraded to a six-lane freeway on which traffic sometimes goes 75+ mph. (The portion south of US-29 in Centreville has always had a different name and quickly transitions into an ordinary suburban route as you cross into Prince William County.) While I'm assuming that for purposes of this thread roads that have short limited-access or freeway segments on otherwise uncontrolled at-grade roads don't count (such as the short freeway segments of boulevard Pie-IX in Montreal or Wade Avenue in Raleigh), the northern portion of VA-28 is a significant enough segment that I figure it deserves mention.

It's been about 10 years since I've been back, but I recall the bypass around Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was functionally like an expressway once you got west of the big shopping center where Franklin Street split off. It was signed as "Fordham Boulevard" but I do not ever remember anybody using that name.

World Drive and Epcot Center Drive at Disney World are mostly freeway despite their names (World Drive transitions to a surface street after it passes the tollgate for the Magic Kingdom car parks).

[dfilpus]

The freeway loop around Greensboro NC is being built to interstate standards, but is named Painter Boulevard. This has come up in some of the NIMBY protests about the loop. The locals thought that Painter Boulevard would be a surface street, not a interstate standard freeway. Completed sections are currently signed Future I 73/I 840, I 73/US 421, I 85/US 421, I 85, Future I 840. The last section is designated to be part of I 785, but is not signed yet.

[Takumi]

I-85 Business and I-40 both have "Boulevard" names in Greensboro. One is Preddy Boulevard and the other is Fordham. Can't remember which is which. There are also limited access roads Bryan Boulevard (unnumbered) and O'Henry Boulevard (US 29), and part of Wendover Avenue is also the same way, or at least it was 9-10 years ago when my dad lived there. I haven't been there since, so I don't know if anything is changed (except the Loop and the death of NC 6)

[pianocello]

I have a 1980 Rand McNally atlas that referred to I-55 between Plainfield, IL and Chicago as Joliet Road--the name of the street it was built on top of.

[sandiaman]

How  about I -44 in Tulsa?  skelly DRIVE?   And  in Boise, I-184  is  known  simply  as the Connector.

[vtk]

Fort Washington Way (I-71 downtown Cincinnati)

[txstateends]

I-27 in Amarillo is still officially "Canyon Drive", even though it has been an interstate for many years.  Most locals label it as "Canyon Expressway" or simply "the E-way", even though the city, for some reason, never upgraded the name once I-27 was signed along the route.

[codyg1985]

AL 255 in Huntsville is a limited access facility that is called Research Park Blvd. It used to be called Rideout Road.

[goobnav]

Gladys Spellman Parkway for MD 295 or better know as the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

[Henry]

Gladys Spellman Parkway for MD 295 or better know as the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

Actually, "Parkway" is probably the most ambiguous designation out there; it has been used for both at-grade (Congress Parkway in Chicago) and limited-access roads (Garden State Parkway). There are many more examples for both types, so I'm not sure it would qualify as unusual.

[1995hoo]

Gladys Spellman Parkway for MD 295 or better know as the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

Actually, "Parkway" is probably the most ambiguous designation out there; it has been used for both at-grade (Congress Parkway in Chicago) and limited-access roads (Garden State Parkway). There are many more examples for both types, so I'm not sure it would qualify as unusual.

I think looking at roads named "Parkway" in New York City is a great example of that. From the signs I've seen, the truck restriction applies even on arterial streets named "Parkway," so Ocean Parkway and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, which function more like what I'd regard as tree-lined boulevards, are "no-truck" routes, as are other parkways like the Belt Parkway or the Interboro Parkway or Grand Central Parkway, all of which are freeways of very outdated design. Then you have situations where the word "parkway" is applied to an Interstate, such as I-66 inside the Beltway here in Virginia (officially the Custis Memorial Parkway, though nobody calls it that), or to a road that is an Interstate look-alike and has no "parkway" qualities at all, such as the VA-895 Pocahontas Parkway near Richmond.

I believe I read that it was Frederick Law Olmsted who was credited with the concept of a "parkway" as a tree-lined boulevard like Ocean Parkway because he wanted to spread a ribbon of park throughout the city, literally a "park way."

[Alps]

Gladys Spellman Parkway for MD 295 or better know as the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

Actually, "Parkway" is probably the most ambiguous designation out there; it has been used for both at-grade (Congress Parkway in Chicago) and limited-access roads (Garden State Parkway). There are many more examples for both types, so I'm not sure it would qualify as unusual.

I was just talking about this last night, to someone confused between "freeway," "parkway," or "highway."